Abstract

[Abstract]: The engagement and retention of first year students has become a critical component ofuniversity endeavour as the diversity of the student body increases and as student enrolmentsdrop. This paper documents a research study evaluating the effectiveness of an interventionstrategy designed to increase students’ capacities to engage with their university studies. Theintervention strategy comprises part of the assessment in a core first year communicationcourse conducted by the Faculty of Arts at the University of Southern Queensland. Apreliminary essay plan was introduced to help students become more familiar with academicprocesses to help them with their major essay – assignment 3. The research study measuredthe effectiveness of this strategy by first comparing the mean mark of the final essay beforeand after the preliminary essay plan was introduced and secondly, by documenting students’comments about the assignment. It was found that students’ mean score for their essaysincreased by a grade from a ‘C’ to a ‘B’. While this result was encouraging there were othervariables (changes in class format, other assessment items and staffing) that could havecontributed to this increase. Nevertheless, the results warranted further investigation. Aqualitative analysis of student perceptions revealed wider benefits of the PEP beyondimproved marks such as enhanced student planning and engagement with the coursematerial.